manchester news
education
Friday, 19th November 2004
Children's tears at 'end of the world' spoof
Deborah Haile
PUPILS at a Manchester school were left terrified after a teacher told them the
end of the world was just days away.
During a morning assembly at St Matthew's RC High School, Moston, the head of
year told youngsters that a giant asteroid was on a collision course with the
Earth.
She is reported to have told the 13-year-olds that they would be allowed to
leave school early so they could say their "final farewells" to their families.
The spoof story was designed to teach youngsters to live each day to the full.
But a number of youngsters in the assembly believed the doomsday scenario and
became upset - some reportedly burst into tears.
Officials at the school say that as soon as it became clear that some of the
youngsters were anxious, the teacher made it clear that the tale was untrue.
After the assembly she visited each class to stress that the story had been
made-up.
But the school has received a number of complaints from parents.
Commenting on the incident, headteacher Keith Hogan said: "The assembly was led
by the head of year and its theme was `living each day to the full'.
Fictional
"To illustrate the point, the children were told a story suggesting that an
asteroid was going to hit the the Earth.
"Unfortunately, a small number of pupils took the story literally and became
anxious. As this became apparent, the head of year made it abundantly clear
that the story was fictional and had been used to emphasise the theme of the
assembly.
"Following the assembly, the head of year visited every year-9 class and again
told students that the story was untrue and made every effort to ensure that
those students who had been anxious were reassured."
Mr Hogan stressed that he had full confidence in the actions taken by the
member of staff. "Obviously, I regret the fact that any student was distressed
by the content and delivery of the assembly," he said.
"However, I am confident that the head of year acted appropriately and
professionally in dealing with the incident."
Manchester councillor Alison Firth, Lib-Dem spokesman for education, believes
the head of year went too far.
"This just seems to be over the top," said Coun Firth.
"These young people clearly didn't get the bigger picture, but focussed on the
meteorite wiping out their families. You would expect many of them to be upset
and to be crying and worried. I think this was an assembly too far."
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